i'd like to do cupcakes, but I'm Italian and have no expirence, so I tried the first recipe I had (one of my friends gave me), but the main problem has been the decoration... which tecnique do you generally use to decorate cupcakes?
And: is there a way to prepare the colorings without using chemical E-numbers?
thanx!

To make a silky-smooth buttercream icing, melt the butter before adding the powdered sugar. Water in the melted butter with dissolve the sugar crystals, baking your icing very smooth. Color can be added by using beat juice, or strawberry syrup, or by adding cocoa powder. It can be made blue by adding blueberry syrup, etc. Use homemade butterscotch to turn it light brown, or yellowish. Grade-b maple will add color as well. Concord grape juice will give a nice purple color.

Of course, with all of these, you have to play with the frosting a bit to make sure it's thick enough to hold its shape. Folding in non-dairy whipped topping or whipped cream will help. Corn starch will help stiffen it as well.

Use a piping bag with tips to create interesting icing patterns on the cup cakes.

Just some ideas to think about.

__________________

__________________“No amount of success outside the home can compensate for failure within the home…"

Hi there!
I'm a cake decorator, and I really like working with buttercream (thanks to Goodweed of the North, by the way, for the great tips on preparing a smooth buttercream!). I like to use frosting bags and piping tips like these:

...but if you don't have those handy, you could use a knife to swirl the frosting on the cupcakes, like this: